Help - Nanny pay increase? Yes or No? I need your views!

[LittleOneMum]

I have a truly wonderful nanny. She's been with us ten months now and looks after our DS (17 months). I live in central London and pay her £450 a week net. She's my first ever nanny and now it's coming up to the one year stage and I need to decide whether to increase her salary at that time. I'm not currently minded to, for the following reasons:
(1) I pay her for 52 weeks a year but give her ten weeks holiday (all paid) - two of them are her choice
(2) In return for the extra holiday her contract provides that I can ask her to babysit twice a month but I've asked her literally 3 times (and have always paid her extra for this)
(3) She works 8.15 to 5.30pm despite her contracted hours being longer; and
(4) I'm thinking of having another DC at some point in the next 12 months and would obviously put her salary up then and don't want to have to put it up twice

BUT I'm very keen to treat her like gold as she is fab and i don't want to annoy her at all. What should I do? Maybe I should take the babysitting clause out of the contract and agree always to pay her extra?

What is the fair thing to do? That's really what I am asking.

I should say that i've asked her to babysit three times in the whole year..., not each month.

it doesn't sound unfair in circs and in the current economic circumstances (most of the rest of us wont be getting a payrise ) but if you're not giving payrise then some kind of bonus, take babysitting claues out would be sensible.

but I'd talk to your nanny about it - what were your dicussions/her expectations re pay review.

and ten weeks holiday is A LOT.

If you want to keep her I think you should put her salary up. Most people expect a yearly cost of living increase at the very least. I think that if you don't put it up she will feel you don't appreciate her and she will go elsewhere.

Why isn't she working her contracted hours - is that yor choice - because if so it's hardly her fault. If you want to increase her salary but reduce her hours to what she actually works I think that would be fair enough - but you will lose the flexibility you presumably currently have.

10 weeks holiday is plenty - but as she can only two weeks at her discretion it's not that much of a plus is it really?

I think the fair thing is to put her wages up so that their value stays the same.

guess it depends on what the contract says?

does it say annual payrise

10weeks holiday is very nice and very generous

she is on a good salary £90 a day for those hours - why do she do those hours if contracted are longer?

why do you pay extra for bs if the terms of the 10weeks holiday are for 2 bs a month?

i know not every one gets an annual payrise but I always have, as well as an increase in salary when nb comes

She doesn't do contracted hours because I tend to come home early. It's my choice. I pay her for babysitting because I know she's saving up for things and I feel bad really. i think you're right though. I should put it up a bit and then if NB comes, I can put it up a bit more. Thanks for your comments. i really appreciate it and would definitely rather err on the side of being too nice rather than being mean.

i'd at least change something about the contract if not a payrise - add some kind of perk so she knows you are pleased with her. but if you can afford it would give small rise as you suggest.
i just gave ours a payrise which we cant really afford (i've got a pay freeze this year) but we love her and she's earned it.

Just thought about it a bit more and I would definately put it up - I use a nursery and they've just put the fees up. The owner was very apologetic about doing so in the current climate - but she needs to keep the good staff she has and pay is a key way to do that. I don't grudge it because childcare that you are happy with is worth far more than the financial impact of the raise.

northernlurker - I agree completely that good childcare worth paying for . What I'm more puzzled about is at what point the economic crisis filters down to all levels (incl your nursery alto presumably demand not affected there hence nursery owners need to keep good staff). I can only speak from my own very limited experience but it is definitely true that there are nannies out there looking for work at present as jobs have been lost/hours cut due to fact to fact same has happened to families they are working for. What i'm slightly more bemused about is fact why would pay for nannies not have same thing happen (ie pay freeze/market rate rise) that happens to rest of us?

although this is not very helpful to original poster..

Unfortunately the fact is in a recsession those who keep their jobs end up paying more for everything to cover the losses of the parents who've taken their children out of the nursery due to job loss and to ensure the rising costs of food and bills are still covered without affecting the nursery owners standard of living.

sorrento as I posted did think the economics differnet of nanny to nursery...

Wow- she's appreciated and she gets a great salary. She sounds like she's get a nice job there, LittleOneMum. No real views on whether she should get a pay rise- are you and your partner (if any) getting one? Maybe you could put her salary up by the same proportion?

The fact that you don't use her for babysitting as often as contracted and give her 10 weeks holiday are of your choosing not hers.

Therefore I think its proper and right that you should give her a pay rise.

However if and when you do have another DC, which unless you are very lucky and it happens straight away, is unlikely to happen this year, I'm not sure that this in itself would warrant a pay rise. Nannies are contracted and paid for hours, not by number of children as far as I'm aware.

We're not getting one as self-employed, but business is affected of course. I am going to do this, i have decided:

(1) Ask her what her expectations and discuss what I had in mind
(2) Discuss the NB situation
(3) then decide. But probably put it up a bit and then more if I am lucky enough to have another DC.

Thanks ladies. Invaluable advice.

I think she has a fantastic deal already, and I am sure she knows it.

I personally would not give her a payrise, but that would just be me being bitter - neither me nor DH got one for 2 years running.

Although I would make sure she knows the reason.

Is 450 standard London nanny pay? I take it you pay her taxes on top, so 450 is net pay? In which case nearly 2 k net salary per month, plus baby sitting, is very generous. The holiday, and the reduced hours are nice perks indeed.

I think she has a fab salary for her hours instead of a payrise could you change her contracted hours to what she is actually doing and in effect she has had a pay rise as its a higher hourly rate?

I think a payrise is fair, but I wouldn't automatically expect an increase for an additional child. My contract actually covers caring for all future born or adopted children.

Actaully, if you changed her pay by the current RPI or CPI, it is prob v small in percentage tersm,
we have v good nanny we have had for nearly 3 years, and have given good 8% style pay rises to, she is now on 100 net pday, the trouble is ,we are not now earning as much as we were wen she started, so the rises now seems massive. we still gave her about 5 % last time though, on basis that she was v good etc adn at the end of the day, she is in sole charge of yr most precious children so what is 50quid a month in comparison? we just don't go out anymore

You pay her a small fortune already. £450 per week net is roughly £35k cost to youper year. Please tell me she is live out for that price. If you want to give her a raise and can afford to then there is nothing wrong with that. But you are certainly not obligated to on either grounds of legal requirement or common industry practice. Lots of nannies are looking for work, and those who are employed are probably happy just to keep their jobs. Just as those of us who work in other industries are happy to keep our jobs.

Why would you increase the pay when an another baby arrives? I think you will find the trade off is that you can expect her to do a few less chores. For example, she might not have time to cook everything from scratch alla Annabel Karmel. Or the laundry might get done weekly rather than daily. There will be give and take. But an increase in salary is not the usual practice when a new baby arrives -- unless of course you have already offered this.

As you have already established a precendent of paying her for babysitting, I would remove the swap from the contract. If £450 net plus ten weeks of hols is not incentive enough to keep a goood nanny around then I am most certainly in the wrong field of work.

Not sure I agree that she should get a payrise. Inflation is v low and many people in other jobs (myself included) are not getting a payrise because of this. The salary you are paying her is very good. However, I do think you should have a good conversation with her and explain the situation. There are other things you can do to make a person feel good about their job and these are not necessarily all to do with money

She sounds like shes getting a great deal as it is. When i worked as a nanny i got a bonus at the end of the year with one family i worked for as they couldnt afford a payrise, maybe this could be an option instead.

THe trouble is not so much the net pay but the tax and NI on top, that is what makes it so much

pearlym I think her pay/conditions are OK as they stand (esp 10 weeks holiday whether her choice or yours!! but you can't use that to pay the rent/bills/food), however, I also think that a 'truely wonderful' nanny is hard to find and something you might not even totally appreciate until you've been though 'childcare hell' in one way or another!! Mind you, as you want to treat her like Gold and think she's 'truely wonderful' you do seem to realise you have a good one

I think the things to consider here are 1. What is it worth to have her stay

1. What can you afford.

Having her stay is not only nice, it's cost effective!

It's easy to say she's well paid/overpaid or has great perks etc if you aren't living in London! It's an expensive place to live (and near London, still isn't IN London).

I think we all like to feel appreciated and if things stay the same, you don't really feel appreciated/acknowledged do you... so if you can afford a raise then great, if not (as buggylovin said) a bonus or if money is quite tight, what about a nice treat (tickets to something she'd enjoy/vouchers for a meal out), just 'something' to say 'we think you're great!!'.

Re another DC, yes it does depend on the contract, but also expectations. Your nanny might be happy with her lot with one small child, but might not think it enough to have a toddler and a newborn. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, it's if it's not worth it, to her. I'd definitely sound her out about it sooner rather than later.

I think you should have a chat with her at the one year review to let her know how well she is doing etc so she feels appreciated. If you are not planning to raise it then I would give the reason as something to do with business - e.g. you and/or hubby not getting an increase. Even if you are she won't know this and it sounds better that you have given her a reason for the lack of increase. You could also remind her about the fab salary she is earning and the great holiday entitlement etc so she remembers what a good package she is on already. In practice she may struggle to do better at the moment when many nannies are losing jobs and other employers are tightening their belts. Therefore, she'll probably stay. You could perhaps give her a token bonus, e.g. £200 to show your appreciation.